1994

After writing the early blueprint for ’90s R&B, Mary J. Blige laid out her own musical foundations on 1994’s My Life. The influence of hip-hop began to seep into R&B by the end of the ’80s — a period that soon saw Bell Biv…

During their ten-year stint as a recording band, Pavement showcased a talent for evolutionary steps with markedly small adjustments. On paper, there are a lot of commonalities between Slanted & Enchanted — their lo-fi, noisy 1992 debut album, plenty canon-worthy in its own right —…

Nobody denies that Johnny Cash was a legend; his mythos looms large in Ken Burns’s Country Music documentary, as good a bellwether as any for how Cash remains one of the genre’s defining personalities. On what foundation does his legacy truly rest, though? For decades, the Man in…

Our monthly music feature, Rooted & Restless, finds country music aficionados Josh Hurst and Jonathan Keefe wading into all things Americana, expanding the definition of ‘country’ to incorporate all the permutations that the genre has opened itself up to, especially in recent years. We…

It’s somewhat curious that Guided By Voices has so comfortably settled into its position on the Mount Rushmore of ’90s indie rock. That their brand of junky, compressed pop songs resonated with the slackers in Archers of Loaf T-shirts is hardly a surprise, but…

By the mid-1990s, the political ambitions of what is known as the liumang generation — literally, “hooligans” — had devolved from a battle cry into feelings of wounded dejection, crushed under the weight of an intensified Chinese censorship, and the restricted freedoms enforced by…

The literal translation of Don’t Be Young‘s Chinese title, “Wei Qing Shao Nu,“ means “Emotional Young Lady”— and it is, in many ways, a more than appropriate title for Lou Ye’s debut*. But the film’s stateside-given name serves a more theoretical purpose connected to its…

In 1982, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five released what’s largely considered the first ‘conscious’ mainstream rap single, “The Message,” a harrowing seven-minute journey into the hellish existence of project housing and the means one must utilize to escape it. Freedom from this infernal…

SoundCloud junkies Paul Attard and Joe Biglin run down some rap releases from the months of February and March in the latest What Would Meek Do?. This seventh official issue features takes on several up-and-comers’ latest projects (DaBaby’s Baby on Baby and Gunna’s Drip…

Before the eye paint, the brain-dead political anthems, and their embrace of radio-friendly sensibilities, Green Day was a raggedy assembled trio of stoner misfits with rockstar ambitions, similar to Hüsker Dü, and a sound in line with the Replacements. (Though lead vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe…